An electronic device manufacturing system may include one or more process chambers in which substrates are processed to fabricate thereon electronic devices (e.g., integrated circuits and/or flat panel displays). The process chambers may be operated at a vacuum level (ranging from about, e.g., 0.01 Torr to about 80 Torr) and at high temperatures (ranging from about, e.g., 100 degrees C. to 700 degrees C.). A same or different substrate process, such as, e.g., deposition, etching, annealing, curing, or the like of a film layer on a substrate, may take place in each process chamber of the electronic device manufacturing system. Substrate processing may also occur in a loadlock of some electronic device manufacturing systems. A loadlock is a chamber through which substrates are transferred between process chambers and a factory interface for transport elsewhere in an electronic device manufacturing system.
In a substrate process, one or more film layers of a desired material having a desired thickness and uniformity may be selectively applied to or removed from a substrate via process delivery apparatus, such as, e.g., a pattern mask and/or a plasma or gas distribution assembly. To ensure that such desired thicknesses and uniformities are precisely applied or removed, a gap between a substrate and the process delivery apparatus should be tightly controlled. However, as the size of process chambers increases to handle larger substrate sizes, larger batch loads of substrates, and higher process temperatures (which may affect the thermal expansion of process components), the desired gap may become more difficult to control. Electronic device manufacturing systems may therefore benefit from improved gap calibration systems and methods.